Episode 31 - A minority girl against all odds - with Sawsan Kheir

Coming from a very traditional Druze community in northern Israel, Sawsan Kheir had a dream to become a psychologist, but not enough self-confidence. In this episode she tells Danni how she overcame lots of obstacles until she finally became a double degree PhD candidate.

Sawsan also talked about her field of research which is focused on the effects of modernization on the values and role of faith in the lives of Druze and Muslim students in Israel. It is part of a global research project known as the Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective (YARG), headed by Prof. Peter Nynäs of the Åbo Akademi University.

Sawsan shares about the influences of her car accident while 8 month pregnant which forced her, eventually, to change her PhD topic; about traveling abroad alone for the first time in her life for a conference; why she named her daughter Mulan (yes! after the movie character), and her plans for the future. In this episode Sawsan drank traditional Druze mate and Danni drank her traditional amaretto.

Sawsan was born and raised in Peqi’in, a Druze village in the Western Galilee. Worked as an educational psychologist in the Haifa Municipality’s Jewish Education System for several years. She is currently serving as a teaching assistant and am a Joint Program PhD candidate at the Department of Psychology at the University of Haifa and the Faculty of Arts, Psychology, and Theology at Åbo Akademi University, Finland.

Host: Danni Reches (@DanniReches)

Producer and Editor: Ido Rosenzweig (@IdoRosenzweig)

Sawsan on:

Twitter: @khsawsan0706

Facebook: @Sawsan.Kheir

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Enjoy the episode!

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